The war is over
by FrankieD
Summary: The war is over and Commander Shepard is lying comatose in a hospital. Will he regain his strength to wake up again and bring his life in order? M!Shep/Vega. Rated M for language and sexual suggestions in later chapters.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer**

The characters don't belong to me; the idea for this story is my imagination. I do not intend to make money with it.

* * *

"The war is over. The reapers have been defeated. Against all odds, and in the face of the greatest threat this galaxy has ever known, we survived. We suffered many losses. The relays are severely damaged, but we won. This victory belongs to each of us… every man, woman and child. Every civilization… on every world. Now, as we take our first steps toward recovering what we lost, we must remember what it took to win. This wasn't a victory by a single fleet, a single army, or even a single species. If this war has taught us anything it is that we are at our strongest when we work together. And if we can put down our grievances long enough to stop something as powerful as the Reapers, imagine what we can achieve now that they are defeated. It will take time, but we can rebuild everything that was destroyed. Our homes, our worlds, our fleets and defences. All of this and more. Together we can build a future, greater than anyone of us could imagine. A future paid for by the sacrifices of those who fought and died alongside us. A future that many will never see. And while we still have many challenges ahead of us… We can face them together. And we will honour those who died to give us that future."

**_- Admiral Steven Hackett_**

* * *

**Prologue**

After the Reapers where gone, the Earth was one big place of chaos and destruction. So many losses, so much grief and despair. And yet, there was hope. A new dawn had arrived, even after they all had lost faith. The morning sun was slowly rising in the eastern sky as the remains of the reapers fell to Earth and shattered to dust. It took a moment for the people to realize… he did it. Commander Shepard had finally defeated the Reapers.

Three days later, Lieutenant Daniel Grady and his Rescue Squad were still searching the wreckage of the Citadel for survivors. Only a few hours after the Reaper's fall, many Squads had been sent out by Admiral Hackett to search and find survivors, and to recover the bodies of the victims before a plaque could spread out. In truth, this was the main activity of the Rescue Squads – this war had left damn few survivors to rescue on the battlefields. But it was also the most important part and the very first step of rebuilding their home world, as no good could ever be built upon the rotting cadavers of the dead.

Lieutenant Grady took a short break and looked around while he wiped the sweat from his face. This place was all dust and ashes. The former glory had been turned to smithereens. Nothing was left of all the pomp and splendour the Citadel once had held.

Slowly Grady resumed his work. He had not been overly enthusiastic to be assigned with this task, but he did it nonetheless. He never questioned the orders of his superiors, but he also knew how important this work was. It hit him hard, that he had not found a single living soul yet, while he and his squad rolled over debris after debris and waded through rubble. After more than two days of hard work, he had given up all hope that anyone on the Citadel had survived. They had found the body of Admiral Anderson near the top of the Citadel, deformed and partly burned by the explosion, but still recognizable. Grady had looked it over closely and in his opinion the Admiral had definitely not died in the explosion. The Admiral had been shot in the belly and presumably bled to death before the whole station had been blown up. But they had never found even the smallest trace of Commander Shepard – the one man who had made this victory possible.

While Grady worked his way through the wreckage, he let his thoughts wander to the Galactic Hero that Commander John Sheppard had been. Always working against all odds, the Commander had never given up his hope, never given in to the ones that were telling him how wrong he was. If they only had known better and listened to him from the beginning… Maybe none of this would have ever happened. Maybe they could have averted this disaster, somehow. Maybe they would have been ready for it... But as it was, Commander Shepard always stood up alone, with just a handful of people behind him. He defeated a misguided Spectre called Saren and destroyed Sovereign, who was some kind of a harbinger for the Reapers. After the Collectors hit the colonies, he travelled through the Omega-4 Relay to destroy a complete Collector Base - and not even then they could believe that there was a threat! Not to mention that he even died in the process and was brought back to end his mission by a former Human Black-Ops Organization that went astray with their ideals! But in the end he did it. He won this war and saved the whole fucking Galaxy!

Grady let the ruins of the Citadel feel his desperate anger by kicking out at the nearest debris as hard as he could. Once, he did not believe any of this, neither. After all, he had been far away, save on Earth. It is hard to believe in a galactic threat when your own life is stable, calm and peaceful. But then the Reapers attacked Earth and killed his family and his friends, and suddenly everything Shepard had said turned real. The worst possible nightmare had happened right in front of his eyes. Looking back, Grady could not believe how stupid he had been. How stupid and blind all of them had been. But none of this did matter anymore. There were no more maybes and ifs, there only were the Reapers. And again, Commander Shepard never said "I told you so!" but kept going his path and saved them all one more time. He went out, united the whole Galaxy and brought back the greatest fleet anyone had ever seen. Turians, Asari, Krogans, Quarians, Salarians... even a few Batarians, all of them in this fight together. And on the way he incidentally cured the Genophage, brought the Quarians back to their home world and even made peace between them and the Geth. Peace! With the Geth! How was anyone supposed to believe that? Still in disbelieve, Grady shook his head while working. Yeah, even the Geth had helped building the Crucible and fighting back the Reaper forces.

Grady turned over another stone and stood again to wipe the sweat from his forehead as he glimpsed another body lying under the rubble nearby.  
"Hey guys!" he half-heartedly called to his squad. "I found another one."  
He bent down and began moving the debris from the body.  
"Gods…" he murmured in shock as he slowly realized. "He's breathing!" Grady called over his shoulder. "We found a survivor… MOVE!"

* * *

"Barely got a pulse here, this one is going to operation room 4, ASAP!"  
The nurse at the hospital hectically shoved her assistants in the right direction.  
"Prepare the room!" she called while hurrying off behind the patient.

* * *

The surgeon and his assistants carefully removed what remained of the patient's armour. Slowly they cut through the fabrics in order to begin tending his wounds. It was harder than it seemed to remove the last pieces, the armour had begun to melt to the skin here and there… They needed to cut it loose, cautiously.  
"Doctor…" the assistant surgeon began quietly. "Doctor, please take a look…"  
The operating surgeon turned to look at the patient's face, as his assistant pointed. He almost lost hold of his instruments as he slowly became aware of the identity of the man.  
"This… this is…" he stammered, visibly shocked and unable to move or react for just another few moments.  
"Beth" he called to the nurse on the other side of the room, while he recovered from the first shock and continued to care for the patient on the table before him.  
"Summon Admiral Hackett" he ordered with a determined voice. "We found Commander Shepard."


	2. Chapter one

**Chapter one**

The corridors of the hospital seemed to be endless. Walls, floors, doors... even the clothing of the staff was white. Everywhere you turned, you got the same view, all white and always the same. On one hand, this stable picture gave some kind of hope. The destruction of the world outside the walls did not reflect in there. On the other hand, it was depressing. There were sounds of people moaning, crying and screaming in pain. People were dying behind closed doors and no one could help them.

The hospital had been mostly unharmed by the fighting. It was located on the outskirts of London and had been lucky to be left largely intact. Now, after the fighting had stopped, the clinic was crowded with the severely wounded victims of the war. Patients with minor injuries had been outsourced to makeshift medical camps. In the clinic building, only heavily injured patients remained.

Inside the waiting area for relatives and members of freshly hospitalised patients, an obviously nervous Liara impatiently awaited the operation of Commander Shepard to finally end. For the umpteenth time, she strode up and down the hallway outside the waiting room, glimpsing every few seconds to the white, closed doors on the other end of the corridor. On the benches inside the waiting room other people awaited news of their families and friends, some of them sleeping, some crying quietly and others staring blankly at the walls. It was a desperate, anxious quiet in this part of the hospital.

On the seat nearest to the doors sat Joker, his elbows on his knees, head cupped in his hands in a forlorn gesture. Beside him, Kaidan leaned on the wall. His arms crossed above his chest, his head lowered and his eyes staring blankly at the floor. Liara turned and strode off again, heading straight to the closed, white doors that were haunting them for more than three hours now. If only one of the occasional appearing doctors would tell them something – anything! But they only hurried off, down the corridors, without so much as a small word of hope for any of them. It almost seemed that they even avoided eye contact, as if they were afraid of a conversation. Liara turned again and briskly walked back to the waiting room. She had never been more nervous in her whole life.

They had been flying the Normandy back to London when the call from Admiral Hackett arrived.  
"I just got the message. Commander Shepard had been found. At this moment, he is undergoing surgery at Saint Mary's Hospital, in London. He is still alive... And they try their best to keep it that way."  
Without a second thought they had boarded the Shuttle and hastily flew there, just to be told that the doctors where still tending to him and that they could do nothing but wait and pray.  
And here they were now: Kaidan, Joker and Liara, exhausted, afraid and almost at the breaking point of their nerves. It was hard just to wait and do nothing. Liara felt an itch to go and shoot something, anything, if only that could make time running faster.

Suddenly she heard a door clapping and turned to see James hurrying down the corridor.  
"Where is he? How is he?" James asked, apparently out of his breath. He must have been running.  
"James" Glad that he came, Liara went to hug him, feeling as if this small gesture meant everything.  
"He is still undergoing surgery" she told him quietly after releasing him from her arms. "It is almost eight hours now, since they started."  
Liara looked sideways to glance at the white doors again. James' eyes followed her gaze.  
"Any news yet?" he asked.  
"None, so far." Kaidan was moving to stand beside them, followed by a tired and hobbling Joker. Kaidan greeted the new arrival by laying his hand on James' shoulder for a few moments, as a small gesture of sympathy.

James had been in Vancouver, recovering what remained of the Military Headquarters with Admiral Hackett himself. He had been there when the Hospital gave them the news. James instantly bid the Admiral leave to visit the Commander and was granted the request.  
"They won't even give a prognosis. All we know is that he was found by a Rescue Squad in the remains of the Citadel this morning. He must have been hit hard by the explosion. He was right at the centre of it for certain. Chances are small that anyone could survive that."  
"But he did survive it!" Liara interrupted determined. "Something kept him alive after all this. He is strong, there is still hope!"  
"Most likely the cybernetic implants Cerberus installed keep him alive." Kaidan explained with another worried look at the doors.  
"That – and his incredibly strong pighead." Joker commented. "You'll see, the Commander is just too stubborn to die!"

After yet another few hours of waiting, the nerves of James Vega were on edge. They were operating the Commander since full 12 hours now and no doctor or nurse had come to tell them anything, neither good nor bad news. James was leaning on the corridor wall, right in front of the waiting room. From here he had a good look at the room, the corridors and – and that was the important thing – was the first one to see when the white doors opened.

He glanced inside the waiting room. Kaidan sat on a chair, his legs crossed, looking worried. Joker sat on a chair at his right side, legs spread before him, arms folded, head sunken to his chest. He was dozing lightly. James wondered how he was able to remain so calm… James himself was nervous as hell! All he could do was trying not to show it, but he didn't thought he was very good at it. Obviously Liara was feeling exactly the same. For the thousands time, she strode past him, headed to the white doors, waited a few seconds, turned and strode back, just to turn again.  
"Heh Doc…" James called quietly and moved to hold Liara's shoulder to stop her for a moment. She halted and looked at him with anxious eyes. "Sit down for a while. You're wearing yourself out."  
"No, I…" she stopped and rubbed her eyes. "You're right, I guess. I will…" The white doors swung open and interrupted her midsentence. Liara and James turned their heads towards the approaching doctor, hoping with all their heart for a word of Commander Shepard. But the doctor only nodded politely and walked past them. They watched him walking along the corridor and around the next corner before they dared to breathe again.  
"Alright. Alright… I will… sit down for a moment now." Liara sighed and rubbed her eyes again. She seemed terribly tired. With a last look at the white door at the end of the corridor, she walked into the waiting room and sat down on the chair next to Kaidan. James watched them for a short time. Kaidan laid his arm around Liara's shoulders as she sat down, a desperate attempt to give her a bit of comfort. Liara welcomed the offer of some closeness and leaned her head against Kaidan's shoulder as they spoke. He could not hear what they said, but surely they spoke of the Commander. Commander Shepard… James sighed and shook his head a little. The Commander has always been a very special person to him. First, as James only was another soldier, he had thought of Shepard as a true Hero. The invincible, indestructible man that had single-handedly held off the enemy's troops until reinforcements arrived, while the Alliance's defences were breached, during a mission on Elysium. He got famous for that, even earned a Star of Terra! Later on he defeated Saren and Sovereign and even destroyed a Collector home base. More and more, the Commander became an idol in James's eyes. A hero. A saviour. Somehow, he turned into something surreal, a visionary ideal of a soldier that James admired beyond reason. And he always defended this ideal, vindicated his Hero with all force. There has been a point in his life, when everything seemed to go wrong – Commander Shepard was the only thing in James' life back then, that was still stable, that did not disappoint him. James even fought for Shepard's reputation once… or maybe twice. He would have never let a word of disgrace against the Commander go unpunished. Never.

Feeling restless, James turned away from the wall and began stretching his stiffened muscles a bit. He thought of the day Admiral Anderson found him on Omega. James had been so angry and forlorn at that time. He was angry at himself as much as at the rest of the world. And he had let them know. He acted ruthless, doing nothing more than drinking and playing poker on Omega. And fighting of course. It's no successful shore leave on Omega when you don't get into a fight at least twice per day!  
But then, suddenly, Admiral Anderson had stood right in front of him, telling him not to waste his life and that he was needed back on earth. He made James – of all people! – Shepard's ward when the Commander turned himself in to the Alliance after he destroyed the Alpha-Relay and with it the entire Bahak System and killed thousands of Batarians in order to delay the Reaper invasion. First, James could not work up the courage to even speak to Commander Shepard without going over every possible turn of the conversation in his head before. But they had gotten kind of close during the months the Commander had been under house arrest at the Headquarters in Vancouver, and afterwards, while on the Normandy. He got to know him and finally exchanged his idealized imagination for a real Shepard. It never stopped the awe and admiration James felt for the Commander though – he still was a Hero in James' eyes. A memory of a conversation flashed through his head, and James had to smile a litte.  
"Commander" James had saluted as he entered Shepard's rooms.  
"You're not supposed to call me that anymore, James" John Shepard had sighed, as always.  
"I'm not supposed to salute you either." James had retorted with a grin. This short conversation was held between them every other day. James could not bring himself to stop calling Shepard "Commander" at that time, nor to stop saluting him, even if Shepard had been stripped of his ranks back then. In his opinion, the Commander had earned much more than that little bit of respect. Nothing could make James forget his worship.

With another sigh James put his thoughts aside and glanced over to the white, taunting doors at the end of the corridor.  
"Enough" he murmured to himself. "I'm going to get some answers now."  
Determined, he started to stride towards the door.  
"James? What are you doing?" Joker slowly stood up in his chair and hobbled out of the waiting room and into the corridor, causing Kaidan and Liara to follow him.  
As James approached the door, it opened again and a doctor stepped out, almost colliding with James while reading the notes on her datapad.  
"Oh" the surprised doctor stopped in front of James. "I am sorry, sir."  
She looked at him and politely asked after a moment of silence "Can I do something for you?"  
James seemed a bit bewildered by the sudden appearance of the doctor.  
"Yes… no…" he stammered. "Yes. How is the Commander? Commander John Sheppard. Are they still operating? Is he…" he had to swallow before completing his sentence, not wanting to even think that the possibility of Shepard's death could exist.  
"Is he… still alive?"  
"Yes. Yes indeed he is. I was just looking for Dr. T'Soni." The doctor replied and looked over James' shoulder, where the others were watching. James took a step aside, allowing the doctor to speak to them all.  
"I am Liara T'Soni. Are there any news?" Anxiously, Liara held on to Kaidan's arm as she waited for the doctor to speak again.  
"Yes, there are. If you would follow me, please?" The doctor looked around again. "All of you, of course." She added, opening and holding the cursed white door open for the others to finally enter.


End file.
